Spent the day walking round Ingleborough NNR with a varied group of people, discussing the revision to the NNR management plan. We ended the day at Sulber Common and I asked Andrew Hinde who was leading the day if we could have a look for Yorkshire Sandwort, which only grows here on Ingleborough....in the whole world! I had looked for this tiny white flower without success before, but with 20 well-trained pairs of eyes searching, we soon came across a scatter of small clumps of this flower growing in gravelly flushes amid the limestone. It is really similar to Spring Sandwort, which is pretty scarce too, but lacks purple spots on the anthers (looking through the wrong-end of my bins helped!) and the leaf-shape is different, being broader. It was good to have a couple of expert botanists at hand to confir the ID.
.........
Last week, I was lucky enough to spend a few hours on the Craven limestone, with Kevin Walker, one of the UK's best botanists. He very kindly showed me Dwarf Milkwort and Jacob's-ladder, both new for me, along with Alpine (possbly Cryer's) Cinquefoil and several Cistus Forester moths. All fantastic stuff!
Cistus Forester on Salad Burnet, and the tiny but rare Dwarf Milkwort. Below, Jacob's-ladder.
No comments:
Post a Comment